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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477490">a strong and delicate instrument</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxmoon/pseuds/halcyonhowl'>halcyonhowl (foxmoon)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Adventure Zone (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Flirting, Grinding, Introspection, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Romance, music metaphors and kravitz fascinated with taako's heartbeat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:55:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477490</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxmoon/pseuds/halcyonhowl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing else to say except they're in love and here's some evidence.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>89</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a strong and delicate instrument</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a short and soft combo of a couple of posts I wrote on tumblr.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time they go beyond just kissing, Kravitz finds himself laying partly on top of Taako and very shyly asking if he can listen to his heartbeat. </p><p>“Sure, my man, go wild,” Taako says, finding it adorable and perhaps a bit cheesy. </p><p>But Kravitz rests his head there for a long time. It means so much, this beating heart behind these gently rising and falling ribs within <em>this</em> person. It’s a delicate instrument, so easily broken, so quick to stop, but nevertheless strong in the face of all that has happened to him. </p><p>Kravitz hears all kinds of heartbeats–most of them a fearful staccato or a brittle diminuendo. He hears the nearby andante of any average person when adrift in the material plane. But Taako’s heart beats a cadenza, a succession of melodies, an entire movement, and Kravitz is lost to it. His heart is filled with so much life. Kravitz could focus in and assess the exact length of it, but settles for the vague reverie of knowing he has many many years to come. He will be there for all of it, if Taako lets him. </p><p>Soon he feels Taako sliding fingers over his hair, moving locs that fall over his face. “You okay down there?” he asks, thumb brushing stubble along his jaw.</p><p>Kravitz nods, eyes closed. “Your heart makes such a lovely sound.”</p><p>There’s a distinct uptick in Taako’s heart rate. He can’t see his face, but he’s sure there’s a blush there and definitely a major eyeroll.  </p><p>“You gonna start kissing me again or should I take a nap?” he says.</p><p>Kravitz laughs and plants a kiss over his heart. “Where were we?”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Taako’s also had his moments of curiosity with Kravitz’s form, his construct. With that tilted head, eyes half-lidded, a small smile on his lips, he says:</p><p>“It’s some kinda magic, huh, handsome? Keeps you looking this good and gives you bonkers special powers. I dig it. You the only one? Lucky me.”</p><p>Flippant and flirtatious, it makes Kravitz laugh. Endears Taako to him more. But there are moments when Taako sees him in his skeletal form and his eyes are tight and his mouth pursed in contemplation. He mentioned once he ‘dug’ that too, but now it’s settling in.</p><p>Taako says to Kravitz, when he has just transformed back into his mortal appearance:</p><p>“You’re not undead, I know that. But you’re cold.”</p><p>Kravitz clenches and unclenches his hand self-consciously. “Not as often anymore.”</p><p>“You’re welcome.” Taako smiles, tipping his hat.</p><p>Kravitz smiles back. “Yes, you’re remarkable.”</p><p>Taako averts his eyes at the compliment. “So, you’re like a powerful ghost?”</p><p>“I’m a reaper; we’re our own thing.”</p><p>“I mean, no shit. You’re literally holding a scythe.”</p><p>“I’m a soul with super powers.” Kravitz shrugs noncommittally.</p><p>Taako is not wrong to be perplexed. Everything about Kravitz is supposed to be an obfuscation, a nightmare. It took him a long, long time to remember who he was before he became Death. Longer still to rebuild his former physical appearance so he could be more than a moldering skeleton in a death shroud in the material plane. He did all that for himself. And now, he’s managed the simulation of a heartbeat, of blood warming his skin so he can blush at the way Taako’s looking at him. That is all for love.</p><p>And later, when they are in the throes of that love, devouring each other with kisses, nails biting skin, Kravitz stops when he finds his hand cradling Taako’s neck. His fingers curled around the back of it, his thumb gently brushing along Taako’s delicate carotid artery where precious life pulses through him. It’s hot and resounding and Kravitz feels him swallow.</p><p>Taako’s gaze is unfocused. His head tilts, a small smile on his lips.  “You going vamp on me, babe? Want a little roleplay action?“</p><p>Kravitz keeps his touch gentle as possible, his thumb pad a whisper over Taako’s pulse. It’s quite the change of pace from the desperate press of fingers into hips and graze of teeth on shoulders from moments ago. But no less intimate.</p><p>“Mmm, another time,” Kravitz says.</p><p>Taako’s breath hitches, and he grinds himself against Kravitz to get him going again. He even whines, as if to say now isn’t the time to be fucking tender. Or maybe he’s imagining Kravitz biting his neck. Either way, Kravitz holds Taako’s thigh still. They’re both hard, but Kravitz is also so, so in love.</p><p>Kravitz’s hand follows the line of Taako’s neck, and trails down along his clavicle, and further still to his heart where life radiates in bursts no less beautiful than a supernova. He follows the heat of it against his palm as it uncurls under Taako’s skin. Down, down. His fingers trip along the Wonderland scar that wraps around Taako’s side and abdomen. He can feel the echo of an almost death, a sliver of ephemeral thread exposed along puckered flesh. He feels a flash of hatred for the ones who gave him this wound.</p><p>Taako shivers and swats his hand away. “Less tickling, more kissing.”</p><p>“Of course,” Kravitz says, and leans in to kiss his neck, sighing into the way it burns under his lips.</p><p>His own heart beats with such intensity, he worries it might shake his form apart. Taako’s arms wrap around to pull him closer, and in that embrace, Kravitz finds the will to hold himself together.</p>
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